(Our Tech Blog) A 14-year-old boy has had a bionic hand fitted courtesy of F1 team Mercedes GP Petronas, after sending a letter to boss Ross Brawn.
F1 team Mercedes helped a 14 year old boy to raise the money to fit a state-of-the-art bionic hand after he sent a cheeky letter to boss Ross Brawn.
Matthew James, who lives in Wokingham in Berkshire, wrote the letter to the team boss asking him whether he would be prepared to pay £35,000 for the artificial limb, in return for allowing the F1 company to put their logo on it.
Mercedes were so impressed by Matthew's 'intelligent and moving letter' that they agreed to help him, and arranged to pay for Touch Bionics to fit a customised i-LIMB Pulse, considered to be the most advanced prosthetic artificial limb in the world.
Commenting on his new limb, Matthew said, 'It is just amazing. My old artificial hand was not great. It had a pretty basic open-close mechanism similar to a clamp. But with this one I can do anything, it is just like the real thing. It is going to make such a big difference to my life'.
He continued, 'It also looks really cool - the outer-shell is see-through so you can actually see the mechanics working. They are event going to put a little Mercedes badge by the wrist.'
The artificial bionic hand is also fitted with Bluetooth technology so Matthew can connect to a PC to monitor his hand's strength and speed of movement.
Although the F1 Team were unable to pay for the hand, they helped Matthew raise the money by asking their fans and sponsors to contribute towards it - Touch Bionics also donated their services for free, and fitted the limb at their headquarters in Scotland.
souce: http://www.britevents.com/news/boy-fitted-with-f1-bionic-hand/